Peter & Johanna

hello, we are a mature couple who have bought a new Compass Avantgarde 145. it's great on many fronts - it was the only arrangement we liked which had two sitting areas in a van just over 20 ft long. We knew nothing about vans so it has been a steep learning curve. The main reason for getting it is that I have just retired from full time work & we want to go and live in Falmouth Cornwall for a trial period. The van is our way back to keep in touch with family & friends in the London Area.
We have a bike rack fitted but having cycled out of St Ives back to our camp site (only 3 miles away) we both nearly expired with the 1 in 8 hill. We would like to fit a motorscooter rack but are concerned about exceeding the max overhang from the back axle. Our van has a wheelbase of 343cm and an overhang of 180 cm.
The Haynes motorcaravan manual states that the overhang should not exceed 60% of the wheelbase of the vehicle when carrying heavy loads on the rear otherwise the leverage on the back will make the front light with reduced traction resulting in possible dangerous handling. We would be in the order of 72-75% of the wheelbase with a 116Kg unladen weight scooter - one of the lightest we could find.
There is a company in Stoke -On -Trent that will supply and fit a scooter rack - they will extend the chassis members to the rear bumper ( at the moment they are some 25cm short). They only seem concerned about exceeding the back axle load.
We have been on a weighbridge and the figures indicate we have 200kg in hand for the rear axle so the scooter + rack will come within this. We will be just inside the overall mass of 3300Kg limit.
Are we being too worried about the overhang issue? after all our bike rack already exceeds the overhang rule at about 70% of wheelbase but of course the scooter will weight 4 times that of our 2 bikes.
Any thoughts or opinions would be most welcome.oh:

Hi Peter & Johanna, Plenty struggle with a rear overhang which is right on the limit. Many people ignore the regulations, and the rack actually makes the overhang too long in law. That said, its the handling that would worry me more than the law. For many the way round this is to fit some air bags, so you might consider this.

When you are new to motorhomes it can be quite a steep learning curve, but you are in the right place to find answers to your questions

Hi Peter & Johanna
I'm no expert but i think that if you hang a 160kg scooter plus rack 1.6 meters
behind your rear axle you'll be over-loading your axle.
There is an equasion to calculate this, but i can barely tell if i've been short changed in the pub :Blush: so i'll leave that to some-one inteligent :thumb:
Have you considered electric bikes??
Oh traction and stopping distance may also be affected by heavy-weight that far back